1. Field
Embodiments generally relate to a method and apparatus for tracking objects, and more specifically, to a method and apparatus for tracking objects within a video frame sequence.
2. Description of the Related Art
The advent of low cost, high quality, portable video cameras has resulted in video camera users storing an abundance of digital video on computers. A streaming video clip comprises a sequence of video frames that are not easily annotated to identify objects, especially, people, within the clip or frame. Entire clips may be titled and dated; thus, enabling keyword searching for particular clips. However, objects, places, people and such within the clips are generally not searchable unless a user takes the time to annotate each frame within each clip.
Object identification techniques have been developed to identify objects in video frame sequences using attributes of the objects to identify and trace an object from frame-to-frame within the video frame sequence. The object track can be used as a reference for tracking similar objects in the video frame sequence.
However, when using such prior techniques, the object must be accurately identified in a particular frame and remain identifiable through the entire video frame sequence to be able to be accurately tracked. Substantial computer resources are required to perform accurate object identification. Subsequent tracking of an object is provided by repeated object identification processing on each subsequent frame in the sequence. Any occlusion or substantial change in the object, e.g., a person faces away from the camera, will cause a loss of tracking. The complexity of the processing required does not enable a typical consumer to utilize such object tracking techniques using a personal computer.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved method and apparatus for tracking objects within a video frame sequence.